Bush essentially declared war today. The conditions he's placed on Saddam are reminiscent of Socrates asking for free room and board after being convicted of corrupting the youth. (Yes, I promise that's the only time I'll compare Bush to Socrates.)

The thing which is so absurd about the whole affair is how just utterly surreal the whole thing is. Bush and his "advisors" have made absolutely no attempt to at least humor the populice with paltry "justifications" or "reasons" for the horror they're going to unleash. They're totally aware that this "war" is useless, and entirely unnecessary, yet they don't even try to spin it any other way.

For example, the most straightforward objection is that deterrance has worked so far, whether the country happens to be the USSR, or Iraq. Saddam has a history of being a completely rational individual when it comes to any offensive action. He has never shown any propensity to irrationality (miscalculation, yes, but not irrationality). The Bush administration has brushed this aside without so much as a glance. The damage to international credibility when the US actually INSTIGATES a war openly, and the inevitable tensions and breakdown of international relations (the most notable part of which is the disintigration of the UN) is seen as acceptable damage to keep Bush in office during a horrendous economic crisis and open corruption in domestic policies. If you can even call them that.

Then there's Bush's proclaimation in his speech that they will be raising the terror level in anticipation of attacks following the invasion of Iraq. Recognize the implicit statement here: that they know fully well that they are putting the American populice at risk for this war, and that Iraq is MORE of a threat when we are attacking than otherwise. This begs the question of whether or not Bush cares THAT MUCH about American lives, and whether he's REALLY trying to "avenge" 9/11, or create another one. If I were a bit more morbid, I would conject that he wants another 9/11 since it's the only time he had any real mandate to action since he was voted into office 5-4.

Then we have this sickening deterioration of rights in the "war" climate. "Virtually all of the dozens of known Islamic extremists not in custody are already under surveillance, FBI officials said." (CNN, "FBI readies home front for wartime"). The article goes on to say that up to 50,000 people of Iraqi decent are under some sort of surveilance, or have been asked to "voluntarily" speak with the FBI. That is to say, the FBI is now actively engaged in racial profiling and is putting surveillance on Americans who have not even committed crimes, becuase of their genetic heritage. This is just one example of the programs and legislations instituted by the Bush Juggernaut (TIPs, TIA, PATRIOT, PATRIOT 2, etc...) which are in stark violation of any ideas of individual liberty you or I might have had.

I alluded earlier to Bush's complete failure to take care of the citizenry of the country. Let me explicate - Bush has so far pushed through an economic plan which has been condemned by every single leading economist in the world including, but not limited to, his own federal reserve board chairman. He is trying to pass Medicare reform which will essentially hand billions over to pharmacutical companies and completely destroy the safety net we've tried to set up so that at least certain minor sectors of our society don't die of easily preventable diseases. He is trying to undercut Roe v. Wade by passing "partial birth abortion" legislation which ironically bans almost all abortions except so-called "partial birth". He is pushing for the unconstitutional entanglement of church and state with "faith based initiatives" which allow federal funding to go to coercing starving people and children into accepting a belief sytem, and he's going to promote Justice Scalia to the head of the supreme court. That is, by the way, the same supreme court justice who wrote a dissenting opinion when the court struck down Colorado's Amendment 2 which openly discriminated against homosexuals.

At exactly what point is a revolution permissable? Inevitable?

Look, you're all entitled to think Bush isn't the worst president ever. You'd just be wrong.